Once the proud center of the Uranium Universe, and until recently the world’s largest uranium producer, the city of Grants, New Mexico came close to collapse in the 1980s when uranium prices plunged into a twenty-year depression. Five thousand uranium miners lost their jobs and the city elders panicked, looking for an industry to replace mining. “Uranium companies helped build our hospital, our school and most of our major infrastructure,” Star Gonzales, Cibola County’s head of economic development, told StockInterview.com. “We are a mining community and we know it is beneficial.”
Grants is a quiet town of fewer than 10,000 people, just north of Interstate 40 at exit 85 and about an hour west of Albuquerque. Last November we toured the town’s Mining Museum, which boasts the only underground uranium mining museum. Grants is now a “prison town”, and instead of mining uranium, the town runs most of the state’s prison system. However, times are changing again. Coupled with the recent spot uranium price of $45.50/pound, the revival of uranium mining at Grants is almost a done deal. Several uranium companies have taken their first steps in Cibola County. As with the state of Wyoming, more will follow.
IS URANIUM MINING WELCOMED AGAIN IN SUBSIDIES?
We wonder what the political pulse on uranium mining in Grants would be like. So we talked to various representatives at the city, county and state level. Fasten your seat belts and move on to Wyoming. Grants, New Mexico is issuing a public invitation to all uranium mining companies. “We will welcome you with open arms!” Star Gonzales yelled into his phone. “We are very mining friendly in this community.” That is an understatement. Grants Mayor Joe Murrietta returned from Vietnam after being wounded on July 4, 1968 with a Purple Heart and began working at the Anaconda uranium factory in Grants, New Mexico. He worked for Anaconda and ARCO for fifteen years before the uranium boom ended in his town. “We can handle the mining industry and hope to get it back,” Murrietta told us. The mayor is confident that the entire community would welcome the uranium miners.
Grants City Manager Bob Horacek worked in a uranium factory as a college student twenty-five years ago and recalled that it was a good source of income to help pay for tuition. “Obviously we’re looking for work,” he told us. “He is a professional, and financially we could use the higher paying jobs.” When asked about a company he advertised that he might build a mill in, possibly in Cibola County, Horacek was quick to reply, “I’d like to visit them.” State Sen. Joseph A. Fidel, a Democrat representing District 30, which includes Cibola and Socorro counties, perked up during our interview when we discussed uranium in his county: “I would love to see mining come back. It would be very positive economically.”
We are talking about environmental activists. Senator Fidel explained: “If there are protests, they will come from outside, from Taos or from other parts of the country.” Ms. Gonzales agreed: “There will be no local community protests. The mining spirit still lives on in this town today.” These echoed the comments of State Senator Leavell, in the second part of this series, “Most of the protesters have come from San Francisco, DC, and Santa Fe.” Fidel concluded: ‘The community will be very supportive of uranium mining. People will cooperate and react positively when the time comes.”
Each of the politicians interviewed was cautious but optimistic. Grants, New Mexico was hit hard. As with the governor of Wyoming, who basically told the uranium companies to shut up or shut up, New Mexico decision makers are waiting to hear directly from the uranium companies. They’re serious? Fidel said: “I think it will materialize into something serious.” After all, the county may be sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds of unrecovered uranium. More than 340 million pounds, possibly much more, of uranium were produced before mining was halted during the twenty-year drought. “We have a lot of uranium,” Senator Fidel said. “The county has good potential.”
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